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Lab Setup Script – Part 4 – Advanced Features 1

If you’ve followed my previous posts on this topic you have seen the growing list of automated PowerShell setups that are included for some of the basic functions in Exchange. For this article I am going to start delving into the more complicated, more advanced features of Exchange including the option to handle more complex situations with previous configurations.

Configure Delegation

“You can use the EAC or the Shell to assign permissions to users or groups (called delegates) that allow them to open or send messages from other mailboxes. Permissions can be assigned to user mailboxes, linked mailboxes, resource mailboxes, and shared mailboxes. You can also assign permissions to distribution groups, dynamic distribution groups, and mail-enabled security groups to allow delegates to send messages on behalf of the group. You can assign delegates the following permissions to access mailboxes or send messages on behalf of mailboxes or groups.”

As you can see from the script, you need to specify the folder, the user, who is assigned the right, etc. Make sure you have the right correctly typed, or the command will fail.

Room Lists

Room lists are like a little gem hidden in Exchange 2013. I am hoping to shed more light in this feature with my blog article earlier this month, to this advanced functionality included in the lab setup script. More information can be found at this TechNet page.

“Journaling can help your organization respond to legal, regulatory, and organizational compliance requirements by recording inbound and outbound email communications. When planning for messaging retention and compliance, it’s important to understand journaling, how it fits in your organization’s compliance policies, and how Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 helps you secure journaled messages.”

Global
In the below sample run-through, I am attempting to simulate Journaling for all mailboxes, while creating a database (calls another function in the script), as well as creating a Journal mailbox to go with it.

Per User
The next sample is a run-through of adding journaling on a per user basis, without creating a database or journal mailbox.

Retention Policies

“In Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and Exchange Online, Messaging records management (MRM) helps organizations to manage email lifecycle and reduce legal risks associated with e-mail and other communications. MRM makes it easier to keep messages needed to comply with company policy, government regulations, or legal needs, and to remove content that has no legal or business value. “

Applying Retention Policies
In the below example, the script will ask if you want to apply the listed retention policy to users in the environment.

Dynamic Distribution Groups
For distribution groups, the script initially created very generic groups with the “DistributionGroup” name and places a random 1 to 10 users into each distribution group. For this version, there will be a small menu to drive your choices for group creations and validations.

Using a CSV File
This example uses a CSV file to apply quotas to the Archive Mailboxes for users.

Random Users
This option allows a policy to applied randomly, which is usually only done for lab environments.

All Users
In the last example, the archive quota policies can be applied to all users as seen below:

Script Download
Now that the script has reach the more advance level, I am posting it to the web at a TechNet Wiki download. Once the script has been finalized or at least has 80% of the features I want, it will be placed in the GitHub universe to allow people to modify it.

Here is the Lab-Setup-1.3 script for download now. Remember to rename it as a .ps1 file.

Next Steps
In the next article or two I will finish up the Advanced parts of the script. Following that and possibly my last post in the series I will cover using DSC and xExchange with a lab setup as well as production uses. Look for those articles in the coming weeks.